Small church grows in a big way Giving Gardens

Liz Slowik (left) and Katie Kepple volunteer in the Palo Cedro garden where okra, cucumbers, tomatoes and more are grown to be shared with Oak Grove Bible Fellowship members and Good News Rescue Mission.

Shiny eggplants, bumpy cucumbers, beefy tomatoes and plump potatoes are harvested from the large garden below Hank and Liz Slowik’s Palo Cedro home. But the most important thing that grows there is a spirit of generosity.

The garden is part of a big-hearted effort by a small Palo Cedro church. In winter 2009, several members of Oak Grove Bible Fellowship were thinking about how the church could help families in tough economic times. They came up with the idea of a community garden.

“We thought it would be a good way to help some of the families in our church that were struggling in our economy,” recalled church elder Ron Rourke.

The Slowiks offered a fenced plot at their home as a growing space for their church. They’d had a large vegetable garden there when their four children (now ages 17 to 20) were younger and Liz Slowik was a 4-H garden leader. The garden had been fallow for almost five years.

“We brought in a lot of compost, put in drip (irrigation) and rolled up our sleeves,” Liz Slowik said.

A wooden sign at the entrance announces the former family garden as “God’s Garden.” In its second summer, the quarter-acre garden produces peppers, eggplants, potatoes, sweet potatoes, basil, grapes, strawberries, okra, cucumbers, beans, squash, shallots, melons and more.

Other gardens are part of the Oak Grove Bible Fellowship effort too. Corn and potatoes are grown at Jerry and Florence Brookes’ home, and watermelons at Dave and Judy Lewis’ home. Paul and Donna Warner care for tender spring seedlings in their greenhouse.

Just-picked fruits, herbs and vegetables are spread out on tables at the church on Sundays. The congregation has some 150 members and meets at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Palo Cedro. Church members are invited to take the produce home, and share it with friends and neighbors in need.

Fruits and vegetables also go to Good News Rescue Mission in Redding. Church members deliver bags of potatoes, lugs of cucumbers and other produce to the mission a couple times a week.

“Fresh produce is always welcome,” said Ken White, the mission’s director of community relations. “It is often in short supply.”

He praised the donated produce for its nutrition and flavor, and the church for its positive spirit.

“Oak Grove has been a great church in support of the mission,” White said. “They really bring a small-town, neighborly atmosphere to everything they do with the mission.”

The gardening project takes a lot of effort. Liz Slowik is out among the rows of plants at her home every day but Sunday. She typically works from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. “I love being down here,” she said. “I love the beauty of the garden and hearing the birds. I do a lot of praying down here because it is quiet.”

Her husband did much of the heavy labor needed to get the garden going, she noted. “Without him and the tractor, this would not be possible,” she said.

Volunteers show up each day to assist with planting, weeding or harvesting.

“It’s a joy,” volunteer Katie Kepple of Palo Cedro said. “I’m probably here three or four times a week.”

“I like gardening and I think this is a fantastic thing,” said volunteer Cheryl Jackson of Palo Cedro.

The garden has been nurtured from the ground up. “I’m really into, the healthier your soil is, the better your produce is going to be,” Slowik said.

She shuns pesticides and herbicides. “I would rather have a bug eat the plant than put any chemicals on it,” she said.

When she runs into a gardening question, Slowik often turns to friend Linda McConnell of Cobblestone Farms in Manton for advice. “She’s my mentor,” Slowik said.

There have been challenges. Last summer the bean crop failed, harvested onions were left in the heat too long and tomatoes suffered from blossom-end rot. But with vegetable gardening, a certain amount of misfortune comes with the territory.

“We’re learning from our mistakes as we make new ones,” Slowik said.

Last summer’s sunbaked onions were salvaged by cooking and then freezing them. “They turned out to be a blessing,” she said.

The garden is supported with donations from church members. It’s a thrifty operation. Almost all of the plants were grown from seed. To reduce costs further, Slowik plans to save seeds from this year’s plants for next year.

The church doesn’t grow a winter garden, but last year zucchini, peppers and onions from the summer garden were dried to provide healthy foods beyond summer. Slowik gave classes on making pesto and salsa. Shelling beans and winter squash are being grown in the garden now for use in the winter.

“We enjoy giving as much as we can to people in need,” Slowik said.

“It’s just been a wonderful thing,” church elder Rourke said. “I’ve been pleased with the way it’s been received and the way it’s been able to help.”

Feeling generous?

North state gardeners with a surplus of produce can donate their extras to the Shasta Food Group Coalition of local food banks. Harvested fruits and vegetables can be given to: